Tuberculous meningitis remains highly lethal. In this trial, an intensified regimen of levofloxacin and higher-dose rifampin added to standard therapy was compared with standard antituberculosis ...therapy alone. The intensified regimen did not result in a higher survival rate.
Early treatment with antituberculosis chemotherapy and adjunctive treatment with glucocorticoids reduce the rate of death and disability from tuberculous meningitis, but the disease still kills or disables almost half the patients with the condition.
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The current guidelines recommend treatment with four antituberculosis drugs for at least the first 2 months of therapy, followed by treatment with two drugs (rifampin and isoniazid) for an additional 7 to 10 months.
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However, these recommendations are based on data from pulmonary tuberculosis and do not take into account the differential ability of antituberculosis drugs to penetrate the brain.
Rifampin is considered to . . .
Sexually transmitted diseases are major causes of infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and premature birth. Here, we developed a new multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the ...simultaneous detection of nine major sexually transmitted infections (STIs) found in Vietnamese women, including Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Gardnerella vaginalis, Trichomonas vaginalis, Candida albicans, Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma genitalium, and human alphaherpesviruses 1 and 2. A panel containing three tubes × three pathogens/tube was predesigned based on double-quenched TaqMan probes to increase detection sensitivity. There was no cross-reactivity among the nine STIs and other non-targeted microorganisms. Depending on each pathogen, the agreement with commercial kits, sensitivity, specificity, repeatability and reproducibility coefficient of variation (CV), and limit of detection of the developed real-time PCR assay were 99.0%-100%, 92.9%-100%, 100%, <3%, and 8-58 copies/reaction, respectively. One assay cost only 2.34 USD. Application of the assay for the detection of the nine STIs in 535 vaginal swab samples collected from women in Vietnam yielded 532 positive cases (99.44%). Among the positive samples, 37.76% had one pathogen, with G. vaginalis (33.83%) as the most prevalent; 46.36% had two pathogens, with G. vaginalis + C. albicans as the most prevalent combination (38.13%); and 11.78%, 2.99%, and 0.56% had three, four, and five pathogens, respectively. In conclusion, the developed assay represents a sensitive and cost-effective molecular diagnostic tool for the detection of major STIs in Vietnam and is a model for the development of panel detections of common STIs in other countries.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
A review is made of current methods for assessing future changes in urban rainfall extremes and their effects on urban drainage systems, due to anthropogenic-induced climate change. The review ...concludes that in spite of significant advances there are still many limitations in our understanding of how to describe precipitation patterns in a changing climate in order to design and operate urban drainage infrastructure. Climate change may well be the driver that ensures that changes in urban drainage paradigms are identified and suitable solutions implemented. Design and optimization of urban drainage infrastructure considering climate change impacts and co-optimizing these with other objectives will become ever more important to keep our cities habitable into the future.
Interactions between ceria (CeO 2 ) and supported metals greatly enhance rates for a number of important reactions. However, direct relationships between structure and function in these catalysts ...have been difficult to extract because the samples studied either were heterogeneous or were model systems dissimilar to working catalysts. We report rate measurements on samples in which the length of the ceria-metal interface was tailored by the use of monodisperse nickel, palladium, and platinum nanocrystals. We found that carbon monoxide oxidation in ceria-based catalysts is greatly enhanced at the ceria-metal interface sites for a range of group VIII metal catalysts, clarifying the pivotal role played by the support.
•Ability of AWBs for heavy metal detoxification was evaluated.•Influential factors on heavy metal biosorption were presented.•Insights of binding mechanism were revealed and essential tools were ...introduced.•Merits and demerits of pretreatment methods for better biosorbents were highlighted.•Recommendation to use AWBs as green and cost-effective biosorbents was made.
This critical review discusses the potential use of agricultural waste based biosorbents (AWBs) for sequestering heavy metals in terms of their adsorption capacities, binding mechanisms, operating factors and pretreatment methods. The literature survey indicates that AWBs have shown equal or even greater adsorption capacities compared to conventional adsorbents. Thanks to modern molecular biotechnologies, the roles of functional groups in biosorption process are better understood. Of process factors, pH appears to be the most influential. In most cases, chemical pretreatments bring about an obvious improvement in metal uptake capacity. However, there are still several gaps, which require further investigation, such as (i) searching for novel, multi-function AWBs, (ii) developing cost-effective modification methods and (iii) assessing AWBs under multi-metal and real wastewater systems. Once these challenges are settled, the replacement of traditional adsorbents by AWBs in decontaminating heavy metals from wastewater can be expected in the future.
Studies on the phase segregation of unimolecular block copolymers (BCPs) are limited by a lack of reliable, versatile methods for the synthesis of such polymers on the preparative scale. Herein, we ...describe an advancement of Iterative Exponential Growth (IEG) wherein chiral allyl-based IEG oligomers are subjected to thiol–ene reactions and converted into unimolecular BCPs. With this strategy we have synthesized uniform BCPs with molar masses up to 12.1 kDa on ∼1 g scale. BCPs composed of decane-based side chains and either triethyleneglycol- or thioglycerol-based side chains phase-segregate into hexagonal cylinder morphologies. The assembly is not driven by side-chain crystallization, but is instead the result of amorphous BCP assembly.
Neuroendocrine theories of brain development posit that androgens play a crucial role in sex‐specific cortical growth, although little is known about the differential effects of testosterone and ...dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on cortico‐limbic development and cognition during adolescence. In this context, the National Institutes of Health Study of Normal Brain Development, a longitudinal study of typically developing children and adolescents aged 4‐24 years (n=433), offers a unique opportunity to examine the developmental effects of androgens on cortico‐limbic maturation and cognition. Using data from this sample, our group found that higher testosterone levels were associated with left‐sided decreases in cortical thickness (CTh) in post‐pubertal boys, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, compared to right‐sided increases in CTh in somatosensory areas in pre‐pubertal girls. Prefrontal‐amygdala and prefrontal‐hippocampal structural covariance (considered to reflect structural connectivity) also varied according to testosterone levels, with the testosterone‐related brain phenotype predicting higher aggression levels and lower executive function, particularly in boys. By contrast, DHEA was associated with a pre‐pubertal increase in CTh of several regions involved in cognitive control in both boys and girls. Covariance within several cortico‐amygdalar structural networks also varied as a function of DHEA levels, with the DHEA‐related brain phenotype predicting improvements in visual attention in both boys and girls. DHEA‐related cortico‐hippocampal structural covariance, on the other hand, predicted higher scores on a test of working memory. Interestingly, there were significant interactions between testosterone and DHEA, such that DHEA tended to mitigate the anti‐proliferative effects of testosterone on brain structure. In sum, testosterone‐related effects on the developing brain may lead to detrimental effects on cortical functions (ie, higher aggression and lower executive function), whereas DHEA‐related effects may optimise cortical functions (ie, better attention and working memory), perhaps by decreasing the influence of amygdalar and hippocampal afferents on cortical functions.
This study theoretically reports the comprehensive kinetic mechanism of the aniline + OH reaction in the range of 200–2000 K and 0.76–7600 Torr. The temperature- and pressure-dependent behaviors, ...including time-resolved species profiles and rate coefficients, were studied within the stochastic RRKM-based master equation framework with the reaction energy profile, together with molecular properties of the species involved, characterized at the M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ level. Hindered internal rotation and Eckart tunneling treatments were included. The H-abstraction from the −NH2 moiety (to form C6H5NH (P1)) is found to prevail over the OH-addition on the C atom at the ortho site of aniline (to form 6-hydroxy-1-methylcyclohexa-2,4-dien-1-yl (I2)) with the atmospheric rate expressions (in cm3/molecule/s) as k abstraction(P1) = 3.41 × 101 × T –4.56 × exp (−255.2 K/T) for 200–2000 K and k addition(I2) = 3.68 × 109 × T –7.39 × exp (−1163.9 K/T) for 200–800 K. The U-shaped temperature-dependent characteristics and weakly positive pressure dependence at low temperatures (e.g., T ≤ 800 K and P = 760 Torr) of k total(T) are also observed. The disagreement in k total(T) between the previous calculations and experimental studies is also resolved, and atmospheric aniline is found to be primarily removed by OH radicals (τOH ∼ 1.1 h) in the daytime. Also, via TD-DFT simulations, it is recommended to include P1 and I2 in any atmospheric photolysis-related model.
It is well recognized that filter media play a crucial role in constructed wetlands (CWs) for decontamination of phosphorus (P)-rich wastewater. This study investigates the suitability of raw white ...hard clam shells (WHC) and white hard clam shells thermally modified at 800 °C (WHC-M800) as potential media to enhance P treatment performance in CWs. The results indicated that both WHC and WHC-M800 displayed appropriate physicochemical properties, such as high porosity, excellent hydraulic conductivity, and rich Ca content. WHC-M800 exhibited a superior P adsorption capacity (38.7 mg/g) to WHC (12.8 mg/g). However, the practical utilization of WHC-M800 as filter media in CWs may be compromised, due to certain limitations, for example: extremely high pH values in the post-adsorption solutions; high weight losses during calcination and adsorption processes; low mechanical strength; and intensive energy consumption. In contrast, the WHC demonstrated significant advantages of reasonably high P adsorption capacity, locally abundant availability, low cost, and marginal side effects. The fractionation of inorganic P of WHC and WHC-M800 revealed that Ca-bounded P was the most dominant binding form, followed by loosely bound P, Fe-P, occluded P, and Al-P. The present study demonstrates that recycling of WHC shells as a potential substrate in CWs provides a feasible method for upgrading P removal in CWs. Additionally, it helps to reduce waste WHC shells in a simple, cheap, and eco-friendly way, thus can double environmental benefits.
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•WHC and WHC-M800 were studied as wetland filter media to control P pollution.•WHC-M800 exhibited a markedly higher qmax value (38.7 mg/g) than WHC (12.8 mg/g).•WHC-M800 was not a potential CWs filter material due to significant limitations.•P sorption by WHC fitted Langmuir isotherm and Pseudo-first-order kinetic models.•The P removal pathway of WHC was mainly chemisorption in the form of Ca-P binding.
The traditional meat and poultry farms use a fixed quantity of supply, which creates an imbalance between demand and supply. Due to this imbalance, a huge amount is spent on balancing the ...requirements. There is an inequality among demand and supply since typical meat and poultry farms use a fixed amount of supply. A lot of money is spent trying to balance the requirements because of this mismatch. In addition, when connecting and building the meat and poultry farm system, the procedure ignores the impact on the environment. The owner’s primary goals are to retain massive profits and raise reliability. The classical method neglects the effect on the environment while linking and designing the meat and poultry farm system. The main aim of the owner is to increase the quality and maintain the maximum profit. This paper deals with the meat and poultry farms in two folds. In the first step, the IoT based system is implemented for the traceability and demand-supply monitoring. The second steps include optimization of the supply network to reduce the carbon emission from the transportation. Both steps take data analytics as an input to process the final result for the farm to run and optimize. Effective inventory optimization algorithms have been shown to be able to evaluate a significant portion of previous sales data and anticipate inventory future demand by taking seasonality and lead times into account. Revenue, productivity, and customer satisfaction are just a few of the business variables that these strategies may affect. Finally, the comparison is done with the traditional farm and supply chain on the points of demand-supply balance, cost, carbon emission, and wastage. It is found that the farms using data analytics to optimize the overall system perform better and with 37% more efficient than the traditional systems.
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